Playdom raises $43M for social gaming

November 11, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments |
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mobstersPlaydom, one of three major social gaming companies, has raised $43 million with a huge valuation that reflects how hot the social gaming space has become.

Techcrunch reported that the deal valued Playdom at $260 million, pre-money. Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The company itself has not yet confirmed the investment. [Update: the company has just confirmed the report].

We reported that the fundraising process was happening in October, but no numbers surfaced until today. Playdom is among the trio of social game stars that include Zynga, the market leader on Facebook, and Playfish, which was acquired by Electronic Arts on Monday for as much as $400 million.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Playdom is a smaller player on Facebook than Zynga or Playfish. But it has a commanding lead in games on MySpace. It has eight of the top 25 games on MySpace, and its Mobsters game has more than 14 million users there.

Playdom got a lot of attention this summer when John Pleasants, the No. 2 executive at Electronic Arts, resigned to become CEO of Playdom. That was a big vote of confidence for social games, not that it needed one — Pleasants was leaving a struggling $4 billion console game maker (EA laid off 1,500 on Monday) to head a 190-person company with an estimated 2009 revenue of more than $50 million. Playdom has additional offices in San Francisco and Eugene, Ore.

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Photo of Dean Takahashi

About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • mp
    I think you meant to say "Mobsters" instead of "Mob Wars" in second to last parah. You should fix it before the Mob Wars guys sue you like they are suing everyone else :)
  • notpincus
    Wow -- all those different VC companies on Playdom's board? My prediction is that Zynga and Playfish will be the ultimate winners out of the "big 3" of social games. Not so sure Playdom will be able to keep up. The $43M infusion of cash is nice but it also spells a lot of competing voices and directions in the company. Congrats to them in any case and I hope they prove me wrong.
  • abercrombie0
    Everything will be all right,I am behind you.That’s something,That's what I was thinking.Brilliant idea.iphone club
  • I've been following social games for a while (and kicking myself for not getting on top of them sooner...) What's really interesting is that virality was a lot easier a few years ago. Less games and Facebook being more permissive of spammy games trying to get your friend to play.Even now, most of the games feel really shallow. I've read a number of places where people complain that Facebook type games mostly seem like virtual bubble wrap: you just spend most of your time clicking when the game allows you to do so. It's interesting that there are so few real decisions in the games, and few of them take advantage of multiplayer beyond asynchronous "battles" or visiting someone else's display.
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